Dirt Capital Partners invests in farmland in partnership with farmers throughout the Northeast United States, promoting sustainable farmers’ land access and security.

For farmers who are building the quality of their soil every year, insecure land tenure critically inhibits multi-year business planning. Many talented farmers with profitable operations do not qualify for a conventional loan and/or do not have enough capital saved to make a large down payment. The primary alternative is leased land, which is often short-term, insecure and requires permission from landowners to erect basic farm infrastructure. Dirt Capital fills these gaps by facilitating farmland transitions, crafting long-term leases that allow businesses to expand securely, and providing defined pathways to ownership.

We work with sustainable farmers who have successful, existing operations, established markets and the opportunity to grow and expand their business through long-term, secure land access.

Most of our land investment partnerships result from a farmer contacting Dirt Capital with one of the following scenarios:

– Relocate an existing farm to a larger property, or to a farm with more secure land tenure
– Expand a successful operation by acquiring nearby land
– Transfer a farm to non-family or family successors
– Conserve when land trusts look to partner with a like-minded organization, or keep already conserved land in active agricultural production
– Transform a farm with infrastructure updates for the next generation’s efficiency
– Reorganize, or refinance a farm in the event of a change in the partnership or business